“Natal is challenging because it’s so different,” says Molyneux

[greenmedic88]

MS is betting as though Natal will be their future.

If not, and consumer acceptance wanes due to lackluster games, I could potentially see this resulting in the market seeing an Xbox 3.0 sooner than currently planned.

Molyneux is absolutely right in saying that it will be a true challenge for developers to come up with some truly compelling uses of the technology, whether supplemental (as Fable III is expected to have) or as a sole user interface.

What I don't want to see as a gamer is more games like Rebound and Natal Kayaking, which, while initially amusing as tech demos, aren't likely to demonstrate the benefits of deeper game play something like Natal should be capable of.

Games should literally be designed around the specific strengths the Natal user interface provides (using its 3-D depth perception to translate user motions into X,Y,Z plane in-game actions, rather than simply on the X,Y axis) to really showcase the uniqueness of the experience.

While I don't expect to see this with the initial batch of games (which I expect will be more like tech demos), by Fall 2011, I would hope that the marketing and PR promises of Natal become reality within certain games to be released in time for the holiday season.